Spanish Village Art Center is a living laboratory in Balboa Park, where visitors can watch artisans shape clay, glass, gems and other materials into works of wonder.

FRED GREAVES photos

Visitors walk along the colorful squares of pavement in Spanish Village, where a collection of artists have shops.

On any day of the week, rain or shine, summer or winter, artists in the 37 spaces spread out over six buildings take turns staffing their studios.

At the Enamel Guild in Studio 5, Cynthia Pardoe shows how powdery substances, plus copper, silver and gold, can be fired at 1,525 degrees to produce glittering pieces of jewelry and art objects.

“I just really enjoy enameling and letting little kids see what happens and how quick it is,” she said. “That's one thing about enameling – it's instant gratification.”

She demonstrated by sifting a bit of silica, soda ash, borax and other additives onto a copper light switch faceplate and then baking it for minute or so in the kiln. For some pieces, she will add layer upon layer of material, in one case a floral design that took 27 firings and is on sale for $995. The minimum price for any object in the shop is $25.

A painting and a vase compose a vibrant tableau.

A sculptured head on display at one of the Spanish Village shops.

Spanish Village, built for the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition, was originally intended to be one of several internationally themed villages that are typical of world's fairs. But this was the only one that was completed.

It occupied the site of the U.S. Fisheries Building, built for the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition, after which it served as the Yorick Theater for the San Diego Players community theater troupe.

After the second expo closed, artists occupied the spaces, only to be ousted by a U.S. Army unit during World War II. Artists returned in 1947.

Today, they include painters, sculptors, potters, ceramists, jewelers and glassblowers. The San Diego Gem and Mineral Society and Southern California Association of Camera Clubs, located in the Photographic Arts Building, operate on the edge of Spanish Village.

The studios double as mini-museums, as in Studio 25, home of the Art Glass Guild and Art Glass Association of Southern California.

One of the glass guild's founders, Frank Haulichek, showed off the bright glass ornaments and objects sitting on shelves and hanging from the ceiling of what was once a storeroom.

“Members drywalled and I put in the flooring,” he said.

There is only one kiln, so most members hold classes at their individual studios, he said, but the guild sponsors shows, sales and limited-size classes during the year, as do the other organizations.

Open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily and from 5:30 to 9 p.m. the fourth Thursday each month, the Spanish Village studios make it possible for visitors to watch over the shoulders of seasoned artists – and, if so inclined, to go away with a one-of-a-kind, handmade souvenir that is a piece of art.